As the year comes to an end, and indeed the decade, let’s sit back and review the last 12 months.
Firstly, I want to talk numbers. 2019 saw the channel start on 922 subscribers, and my target was to hit at least 950 by the end of December. In actuality, the channel reached 1000 subs in November and has remained around that figure ever since. This is awesome, and I still can’t quite believe it’s real! But there you go.
In terms of views, things haven’t been quite as sweet lately. Overall, 2019 has been a good year for views, with just over 25,000 in the last 365 days. That’s a big, big number, but when broken down for individual videos things get a bit less impressive. In terms of watch time, the most popular video on the channel this year was ‘M4J Transport | Cities in Motion 2 | #1 | A Welcome Return’ with 6196 minutes watched, or 103 hours. Second on the list is also Cities in Motion 2, however this is from the original series I made back at the very start of the channel. In fact, no video from this year appears in this year’s top watched list. Considering all the streams, new series and returning series I have uploaded this year, I’m a little disappointed by this.
The stats don’t lie, but I’m actually quite torn. As I said I’m disappointed by this year’s videos but overall I’m very happy with the channel. I hit my goals for the year, I am still overwhelmed by the response to my streams on YouTube, and even by the growth I’ve received after starting to post on Reddit. 2019 has been a good year for many different reasons, but I know there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
So on to the future. I’ve already been asked for my 1k Q&A stream what my plans are for the new year (and new decade) so I’ll answer it both here and during that stream. My plans for 2020 are to continue doing what I’m doing now, but better. My aim is to be more consistent with uploads, recording footage ahead of time so I can still upload even with technical problems. I’ll also be improving the quality of each video, starting with making all videos at least 1080p (which has pretty much been the case for the last month anyway) with the more photo-realistic games being uploaded in 4k.
I’ve been experimenting with each game I make videos of, and I can now record each game in the highest possible resolution without jeopardising the frame rate. Regarding audio quality, I’ll be looking at getting a new microphone in the new year and changing my setup so my voice will be clearer and the videos will have less background noise.
Now onto the exciting bit, the series themselves. This is a follow-on to last month’s post but with a few more ideas and clarifications. Firstly, remaining series will be the same. The M4J Network is by far the flagship series of the channel, and will be remaining so. The only big change here will be the addition of Patreon-only videos accessible to all tiers. These episodes will after one month be made available to all viewers for a small fee (once monetisation is all sorted). Again, this might not be the most popular of announcements but it’s to allow me to earn a little extra money without compromising the existing series. It’s also to entice people to join my Patreon to help support the channel. Currently, the M4J Network is the only planned series to have these extra videos.
For the rest of the remaining series, we have Global Ventures, M4J Logistics, and The Outer Worlds. In all honesty I have great fun making these videos, Global Ventures in particular, so I’m keeping them around so they have a fair chance to grow. I’ll of course be doing more to promote them, but any help from you guys is always appreciated!
For new series, this is also similar to last month but with some changes. The first new series will be Football Manager 2020. Right now I’m still waiting for the Level 20 database to be released for FM2020, but as there have been a lot of issues with the game this year it is taking a little longer than usual. Besides this the series is ready to go, and will be streamed on YouTube on a day yet to be decided with all streams being uploaded as videos afterwards.
Next, the return of the M4J Racing Series. The plan is to start in January, with one stream a week (again day TBC). I’m still accepting entries for this series, but will be closing applications soon so don’t miss out! We’re also in the process of acquiring the vehicles needed for the races, so the series won’t start until everyone is ready. The stakes are higher this time around, with an overhauled scoring system and an actual prize!
I’m also planning on making some more short haul series next year. By this I mean series that are designed to only run for a few episodes. This is mainly to try out different recording and editing techniques, but also so that I can have different types of games on the channel to see what works and what doesn’t. The first of these will be Rainbow Six Siege. I have already recorded a lot of footage of me playing Siege with the XVI guys, and the plan is to make a series showing my experiences with the game, both good and bad. This series will also act as a pilot for a series of series (I know, right) of me trying to get better at different FPS type games.
This next series is one I am really looking forward to, because I helped make the game! At the time of writing this, XVI is getting incredibly close to releasing the demo of its first game: Project MCAIFIA. This game was officially announced in the latest XVI Podcast (hosted by yours truly) and I’ll be playing the demo on my channel as well as stress testing the game looking for bugs. This series won’t necessarily be focusing on the story of the game, but instead will look at the behind-the-scenes moments, as well as telling the stories behind key parts of the game. There may be a separate play-through in the future where I only talk about the story, but for the first time playing I wanted to do something a little different.
These are the confirmed series, however I am still very much open to suggestions. I want 2020 to be the year that my audience are the most interactive, and so every 3 months I’ll be making a new series based on audience suggestions. This means 4 new series in total, each spanning the full 3 month period. You can suggest ideas by Tweeting me, on my Facebook page, on the official M4J_Gaming Reddit community, or on the M4J Discord. In the future I might do this via a poll, but for now I’m just letting you guys suggest what you want to see!
2019 has been a very productive year, but I know 2020 will be even better! For now though, thank you to each and every one of you for watching, commenting, liking and subscribing. It’s been awesome to start streaming weekly this year, and seeing the same people turn out each week, so I’ll definitely be continuing that and even adding to it.
For now though, have a great new year and until next time, I will see you soon!